OH SH%T

c hris527

Known around here
Oct 12, 2015
1,829
2,195
NY
Long story short, for years been suffering with a heating zone on the 2nd floor, currently wireless thermostat, gone through 3 of them and receivers to boot. The Guy who installed it like 23 yrs ago suggested I run a hard wire up there, Been putting it off but I had a route planned.
Just drill through the vanity upstairs direct to a closet below, from the closet down to the basement. All the plumbing was behind the vanity wall, I even ask the guy if he remember where the plumbing was(same guy did the plumbing). He "THOUGHT" it was too but hey, that was a long time ago. When I hit it, there was a 30 second dash to the main shutoff, had a little water running down a chase in the basement, a bit in the closet also, got very lucky. Now I have to figure out a bet way to repair this, Im thinking a plumber should cut and re-solder it proper. I can open it up a bit more but it goes through floor joists. Best it happened in my own house than a clients, I did drill into a suction line in a dentist office once years ago but I was able to fix that one. Now that its really open I can run my wire..:angry:

OhSHIT.jpg
 
Long story short, for years been suffering with a heating zone on the 2nd floor, currently wireless thermostat, gone through 3 of them and receivers to boot. The Guy who installed it like 23 yrs ago suggested I run a hard wire up there, Been putting it off but I had a route planned.
Just drill through the vanity upstairs direct to a closet below, from the closet down to the basement. All the plumbing was behind the vanity wall, I even ask the guy if he remember where the plumbing was(same guy did the plumbing). He "THOUGHT" it was too but hey, that was a long time ago. When I hit it, there was a 30 second dash to the main shutoff, had a little water running down a chase in the basement, a bit in the closet also, got very lucky. Now I have to figure out a bet way to repair this, Im thinking a plumber should cut and re-solder it proper. I can open it up a bit more but it goes through floor joists. Best it happened in my own house than a clients, I did drill into a suction line in a dentist office once years ago but I was able to fix that one. Now that its really open I can run my wire..:angry:

View attachment 145806

looks like this is possible ..

 
I did that once and just cut a piece of wall from the same size tubing and soldered it in place over the hole. Sealed tight and never leaked.
 
What I have done is to get a piece of solid copper wire slightly larger than the hole diameter. After cleaning everything up, I work the wire into the hole, flux it, and solder it. The length of wire insert into the hole should be about the same as the thickness of the copper pipe wall. Those repairs after many years are still holding.
 
Reminds me of when I drilled a hole through the outside wall of our motorhome, thinking it was an inside wall. I went from highly confident to freaking out in an instant when I saw daylight through it. I was fortunately able to get it patched and painted before the wife noticed it.
 
What I have done is to get a piece of solid copper wire slightly larger than the hole diameter. After cleaning everything up, I work the wire into the hole, flux it, and solder it. The length of wire insert into the hole should be about the same as the thickness of the copper pipe wall. Those repairs after many years are still holding.
So I had a thin screwdriver, poked it in the hole, definitly a divitt on the bottom of that so its got to come out...grrrr
 
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Long story short, for years been suffering with a heating zone on the 2nd floor, currently wireless thermostat, gone through 3 of them and receivers to boot. The Guy who installed it like 23 yrs ago suggested I run a hard wire up there, Been putting it off but I had a route planned.
Just drill through the vanity upstairs direct to a closet below, from the closet down to the basement. All the plumbing was behind the vanity wall, I even ask the guy if he remember where the plumbing was(same guy did the plumbing). He "THOUGHT" it was too but hey, that was a long time ago. When I hit it, there was a 30 second dash to the main shutoff, had a little water running down a chase in the basement, a bit in the closet also, got very lucky. Now I have to figure out a bet way to repair this, Im thinking a plumber should cut and re-solder it proper. I can open it up a bit more but it goes through floor joists. Best it happened in my own house than a clients, I did drill into a suction line in a dentist office once years ago but I was able to fix that one. Now that its really open I can run my wire..:angry:

View attachment 145806
My wife did that a few years ago in out kitchen. She decided she wanted to put up some shelf bracket in the corner above the counter top. I told her to be careful, as the washing machine hookup was right on the other side of the wall in the utility room. She was careful. She perfectly centered her drill bit, right into the hot water supply for the washing machine. I was at work. Somehow, she remembered the water cutoff for the house was down underneath and she got the water turned off. I had to cut a big section of drywall out so I could cut the drilled section out and sweat a coupler on it.
 

View attachment 145821
Lots of people really like these and for sure its not out of the question, I like the brass compression fittings with brass ferrules in this area because its the top floor, The sharkbites and push on fittings have a rubber o-ring and it kind of bothers me the minerals and chorline in the water might raise hell over time. Its in a really tight spot so I might have to go that route. The pipes go through floor joists and are glued in through them so its looking like my options are limited without ripping up tile and pulling the vanity out. The good thing is that its on the draw side of the vanity so it no issue leaving it open to check on from time to time to check for leaks if I do use sharkbites.
 
When we bought the house, the Garden hose Spigot was faulty outside. So we got tired of using the back yard one.
so I tried twisting/Unscrewing it from outside. It just twisted the copper.
the Water Softener is blocking access on the other side of the wall.
So the guy at Menards hooked me up with a 2 sharkbite solution. 1 is 8 inches below ( out of picture(882962AD-4472-49B5-9DD8-D9B249754E7E.jpeg32270AEE-C2DA-43BF-B8EF-51AF7B843C93.jpeg
 
Long story short, for years been suffering with a heating zone on the 2nd floor, currently wireless thermostat, gone through 3 of them and receivers to boot. The Guy who installed it like 23 yrs ago suggested I run a hard wire up there, Been putting it off but I had a route planned.
Just drill through the vanity upstairs direct to a closet below, from the closet down to the basement. All the plumbing was behind the vanity wall, I even ask the guy if he remember where the plumbing was(same guy did the plumbing). He "THOUGHT" it was too but hey, that was a long time ago. When I hit it, there was a 30 second dash to the main shutoff, had a little water running down a chase in the basement, a bit in the closet also, got very lucky. Now I have to figure out a bet way to repair this, Im thinking a plumber should cut and re-solder it proper. I can open it up a bit more but it goes through floor joists. Best it happened in my own house than a clients, I did drill into a suction line in a dentist office once years ago but I was able to fix that one. Now that its really open I can run my wire..:angry:

View attachment 145806
If someone had said "OK, I'll give you $5,000 if you can drill into this wall and hit a pipe dead center" you would have never collected a dime, right? :facepalm: